Local News

Sterlingite appointed to state panel

Westfall named to family medicine board for 3 years

A Sterling man is among three people from northeast Colorado appointed to state boards and commissions recently.

Tom Westfall of Sterling was appointed by Gov. John Hickenlooper to serve a three-year term on the Commission of Family Medicine. That board ensures that family medicine residency programs maintain high quality training, approves and recommends allocation of state funds to the programs, locates areas of the state that are underserved by family physicians, offers ideas on providing medical care to the medically indigent in the state, and supports the development of rural training programs.

Westfall said he was nominated to the board because of his previous work helping to set up medical residency programs for Sterling, Fort Morgan, and Alamosa.

"We had helped develop ... three new rural track training programs, so people have the rural experience," he said. "Hopefully that translates into, if you do a rural residency you'll want to practice in a rural area."

Westfall said he sees the appointment as an opportunity to work on something that's close to his heart — providing health care for the rural poor. Prior to moving to Sterling, he was the director of Yuma County Social Services for 30 years.

"I think it's an opportunity to offer input as we look at family (medical) practice and how those things affect rural Colorado," he said. "I'm especially interested in how it might affect a family living at the poverty line."

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The Commission of Family Medicine is composed of 19 members, including one citizen member from each of the seven congressional districts. Westfall will represent the Fourth Congressional District on the panel; that district covers most of eastern Colorado outside the Front Range corridor. The rest of the commission is comprised of a program director from each of the nine family medicine residency programs, a representative from the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians, and the deans of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine. The citizen members serve 3-year terms and are eligible to be re-appointed one time. A citizen member serves as chair and is elected by the board.

Two other northeast Colorado residents were appointed to state boards and commissions as well. Steve Young of Holyoke and Brett Rutledge of Yuma were reappointed to their positions on the State Agricultural Commission. That board formulates policy for the Department of Agriculture. The commission also advises and makes recommendations to the governor and Colorado legislature.

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